THE DECADENCE OF TOM MANN.

• ■ 9 Antipodeans will (says the London correspondent of the "Lyttelton Times," writing on April 21) be surprised to hear that Mr Torn Mann has thrown up politics and has accepted a call to the bar— of a public-house. On May 1 he commences his new career as mine host of the Enterprise Tavern in Long Acre, which, strange to say, belongs to the .brewing firm of Mann and Crossman. Mr Mann is not the first labour leader who has abandoned politics to become a publican, Fred Hammill, who once defeated Mr John Morloy at Newcastle, is now the' proprietor of the Anglers' Arms, at Topcliff, Yorks ; George Shipton, late secretary of the London 'I'rades Council, runs a publichouse in North London, and .Arthur Humphries,- once a leading light of the Navvies' Union, has resigned the turmoil of trade union politics for the calm serenity of a wayside inn in Cambridgeshire. Their fall .from grace, however,, caused no surprisfi, , whereas Mann's degeneration into a mere publican has made his friends gasp with horror, for it is not many years -ago that "Tom" talked of entering the ministry. It was, indeed, a mere toss up' whether he became a Church of England parson or the secretary of the Independent Labour Party, and perhaps it was only the greater facilities for " spouting " afforded by the latter position that decided him. ■ Mann's life has been one of startling changes, and of ups and downs he has had his full share. He began work in a Warwickshire pit at nine years of age, and obtained some education^ at night schools, band of hope meetings and debating societies. In 1881 he joined the Amalgamated Society of Engineers, became a convert to the theories of Henry George, and ultimately a Socialist, and threw Himself into the unemployed movement in the North of England. In 1888 he was an inspector under the Shop Hours Act, at intervals helping the gas-workerß, and shared with John Burns the honours of the dock strike in 1889, becoming the president of the Dockers' Union on its formation. Afterwards he became secretary to the London Reform Union and a member of the Royal Commission on Labour. In 1894 an opportunity was afforded him of entering the" ministry, but he took up the secretaryship : of the , Independent Labour Party instead. '.The following year he contested the Colne Valley Division, and was defeated by Sir James Kitson ; in 1896 he fought North Aberdeen, being defeated by Captain Pirie, and in 1897 he stood for Halifax where he was again defeated. In 1896 he organised the International Federation of Transport Workers j and his last work on behalf of labour has been the organisation of the Workers' Union. For some time past Mann has been gradually withdrawing himself from all active participation in the labour movement, and his last public appearance as an agitator, will take place on May 21 and 22, when he .will spe:tk -' atAmsterdam and The Hague at /the Peace meetings organised by the Dutch labour party in opposition to the Paace Con- , ference arranged by the Powers. . .",..